Quote of the Day I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.
— Kahlil Gibran (1883 – 1931)
Lebanese-US poet, artist, philosopher, writer
Month: May 2001
(untitled)
I was sitting on my front porch tonight
Reading a book in the porch swing
A warm breeze kept me company
Flirting with my naked legs
Trying to flip to the back of my book
To see how the story ended
But I wouldn’t let it spoil the story
For itself or for me
The main character a strong woman
She left her small town of origin
In search of the things that accompany
The neon lights of a larger city
Twenty-four hour conveniences
Automatic car washes
Room for your dreams to grow
A man found her in the new haven
Decided that she was too independent
He wooed her with promises of love
While he wined and dined another
She started to give in to him
Too close to the end of the book
To please me and my hopes for her
I listened to the wisdom of the breeze
Flung down the book and went to bed
I wouldn’t spoil the story
For her or for me
— me, 05.21.01
Annoying Trick of the Day
Reply to everything someone says with “that’s what YOU think.”
True Confession
I ate Cracker Jacks ice cream for dinner tonight.
Do you ever see a stranger out and about while doing your daily routine and wonder what would happen if you ran up and kissed them? Would it make their day? Would it fill them with guilt? Could it lead to a life-long romance? Could it come back to haunt you? What effect could a single kiss have on a person that you have never met? Do you ever wonder …
Yeah … me, neither.
Quote of the Day
I wrote the story myself, its about a little girl who lost her reputation and never missed it.
— Mae West
Annoying Trick of the Day
Push all the flat Lego pieces together tightly.
Outside The Inn
I sit uncomfortably
As the little man stares
He reminds me of a
Leprechaun in overalls
Breathing through his mouth
A look of puzzlement
Takes over his face
Something tells me
He’s had this look before
I’ve been avoiding his eyes
Scared to be caught
For fear I’ll be rendered
As dumb struck as he
I try not to get irritated
As he keeps up this ritual
I’ll feel better when you arrive
To save me from the
Brooding bumpkin
Standing outside room 101
Perhaps wondering if I’m here
To steal his lucky charms …
— me, 04.15.00
Note To Self:
DO NOT OPEN UNTIL 2011
Jennifer,
When you read this in the year 2011, you will have been through a great many changes since the time of its writing in 2001. You may have married and had children. Hopefully you’ve graduated from college by now. You may have lost a parent, or both. Your brothers will be 25 and 20 and perhaps in college or marriages of their own. You may be an aunt. There will be a new president. You may be living in a different state. You may be in a different country. New friends will have appeared and old friends may have vanished. Yes, many things may be different.
Something will be the same, however. You will have the same parents and siblings. You will have the same teeth. You will have the same brain. You will have the same heart. You will have a majority of the same memories. I hope that you will have the same desire to learn and write and paint and love and care and listen.
(To get an idea of how much can change, think about where you were in 1991. You were 14 years old and living in a situation with an abusive stepfather and an apathetic mother. You were beaten, scarred, scared and lonely. Ten years has truly make a world of difference. You still want to make the best of your life and still want to better yourself and your position in life, and you still feel a bit lonely at times. But my God, girl … you have came a long, long way from that hellish period. You have put an end to abusive relationships and started believing in yourself. In ten years you can accomplish a lot.)
Whatever does happen – please do this for the Jennifer of 2001. Please remember that you were laughing at this point in time. Remember what it felt like to lay in the backyard and look up at the sky so full of stars. Remember that you felt so vulnerable and yet resilient. Remember that you were glad to finally be in college. Remember that you traded poems with a guy online who sang a song about his soap contents just to make you smile. Remember that you talked to your mom on a regular basis and that she told you she loved you. Remember the feeling of the breeze blowing your hair in a million directions as you breathed in the salty air on the coast in early March and picked up shells on Long Beach. Remember the taste of your first piece of key lime pie and how the tart and sweet of it all gave you goose bumps. Remember what it was like to read about the history of art for the first time and how you felt so overwhelmed at the enormity of knowledge you could attain. Remember the dancing in your living room to imaginary music with a man loved you for who you were. Also remember that things weren’t perfect in 2001 but that you made the best of it that you could. Don’t beat yourself up for your mistakes during that time, but don’t idealize it either. There were afternoons when you looked over pictures of your ex-husband and cried for the break of union between the two of you. There were nights where you slept on the couch after a fight and shivered at the lack of warmth. There were moments in this year that you wondered if you’d make it another day, never mind another decade.
Remember the good. Reflect on the less than fantastic. Measure yourself now. If you are stronger than you were ten years ago move on and hold your head high. If you have grown weaker, find strength and make amends in your current life. It’s not too late.
Love yourself. Love those around you. Love life.
Love, the Jennifer of 2001
True Confession
I’d love to have a torrid affair with Dave Matthews. I am vulnerable to a fault around a guy who sings. This normally holds true only if he has good lyrics … but Dave could sing me the ingredients on a shampoo bottle and I’d be melting at his feet.
